Do I really have to render this much?

[Jordan Orberg]

I purchased one of the new macbook pros about a week ago and have the entire CS3 suite installed on my system. I captured some 720p footage from my XH-A1 camera using the preset project setting for 720p, 30fps footage. I added some clips to the timeline and arranged them like I wanted. However, every clip that I add to the time line comes up that I need to render it. Is this really the case? Do I really have to render this much?

Are there any work-arounds to rendering every clip every time that I place it on the timeline? If not, would I have to render everything in FCP? I want to learn how to use that software anyway.

[Paolo Ciccone]

It depends on which compressor you selected for the project. If it's different from the clip's codec than, of course, you have to. Check your project properties, under "Video rendering"

[Jordan Orberg]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

It depends on which compressor you selected for the project. If it's different from the clip's codec than, of course, you have to. Check your project properties, under "Video rendering"

Thank you for the reply -- under 'Video Rendering' These are my settings:

File Format: 1-Frame Only Mpeg2

Compression: 1-Frame Only Mpeg

Color Depth: Millions of Colors

All of the options to change these settings are greyed out. Also, Under Capture Format I have it set as HDV. There is an option to switch to quicktime

I clicked on 'New Project' to see if I could change the settings for 'Video Rendering' and I still couldn't. Could you guide me in creating a project file that I won't have to render every clip in the timeline? Or do you know of a place that I could read about steps to take? I would really appreciate it a lot...

[Paolo Ciccone]

All right, you have to make your own preset because if you use one of the stock project settings of Premiere you will not be able to change the parameters. When you click on "New Project", Click on "Customn Settings":

- In the "General" section select "Editing mode" => Desktop
- Adjust the settings below for 30 fps, 1280x720 resolution with square pixels and progressive scan
- In the "Video Rendering" section select your compressor for HDV 720p30"
- Adjust all the other settings as you need and click "Save Preset" to save your configuration for the future.

[Jordan Orberg]

Thank you so much for your help Paolo -- I really appreciate it.

Is there any specific compressor that I should choose? None of them say HDV 720p 30 or anything like that. How should I choose?

Again, thank you so much!

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Jordan Orberg

Is there any specific compressor that I should choose? None of them say HDV 720p 30 or anything like that. How should I choose?

The compressor is the codec that is used to render your sequence. Normally it should be what you used to create the clips, assuming that you use the same codec for all clips. When mixing elements in the sequence, like when you drop an PSD or Jpeg file in it, the selected compressor will be used to "conform" the material to a common format. The idea of using the same, HDV, compressor of the original clips is to avoid render time. Once you have finished your editing you might need to select a different codec in order to preserve quality. HDV is notably bad for re-rendering.

Which one you should select depends on what you have available. Can you provide a screen-grab of the codecs available on your machine?

[Lloyd Coleman]

All the advise has been good so far, except for I point. The XH A1 does not shoot in 720, it shoots 1080, so any project that you make using any form of 720 will have to render every bit of footage.

Try the HDV presets for 1080i30 (60i) if that is what you shot or 1080p30 if you shot in 30F. Download the presets from the Adobe site for Premiere Pro version 2 and I think they will work with PPro CS3 if you used 24F or you can make your own as described in the previous posts.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Lloyd, good point, just my bias caused by my use of the JVC HD100 which is 720p :)

Edit: I went back to the original post, it says that Jordan used the 720p 30fps setting. That was what caused my repliy about the HDV 720p.

[Jordan Orberg]

Okay here is what I have under compression --

Animation
Apple Intermediate Codec
Apple Pixlet Video
BMP
Cinepak
Component Video
DV - PAL
DV/DVC-Pro - NTSC
DVC Pro - PAL
DVC Pro50 - NTSC
DVC Pro50 - PAL
Graphics
H.261
H.263
H.264
Jpeg2000
Mpeg4 Video
Motion JPEG A
Motion JPEG B
None
PNG
Photo JPEG
Planar RGB
Sorenson Video
Sorenson Video 3
TGA
TIFF
Uncompressed YUV 10bit 4:2:2
Uncompressed YUV 8bit 4:2:2
VC H.263
MPEG4 - Video

These choices are confusing! Which should I choose?

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Jordan Orberg

Okay here is what I have under compression

Well, you are kissing any of the HDV codecs which is why Premiere is acting the way it is. I'm surprised because you should have the one that is used for the capture of the clip. Do this, open one of the captured clips in QuickTime player and press Cmd-I and tell me what codec is listed for the clip.

[Jordan Orberg]

Well I tried to open the file with Quicktime, but it said that it is not a movie file. Strange because I can edit it in Premiere Pro CS3 just fine. The file extension is mpeg, and I captured it using the settings described above.

Is there something else I can do?

[Paolo Ciccone]

OK, so you captured the files as straight mpeg files. That's the reason for your initial settings. I thought you had QT files so setting the compressor to MPEG was going to require a render. Keep in mind that the red line in the timeline is different from how FCP uses it. It does mean that you need to re-render for the final result but Premiere can often play back the clips without requiring the rendering.
Having said so, you have MPEG2 files which are not the best option for editing but can be used if you are careful. The downside of them is that they are very CPU-intensive. Premiere is able to use them directly because it support multiple file formats not just QuickTime so that's the reason why you can setup a project in that way.
I would suggest to go back to your initial setup if you want to use the original files. If you want to convert them to QuickTime there is the free MPEG StreamClip utility (google it).

[Jordan Orberg]

Okay --
So if I use mpeg files I will have to render. However, if I use quicktime files I will not have to render the timeline everytime.

For future projects, should I create a new HDV custom preset that captures quicktime files, and uses a certain compressor? If so, which compressor should I use?

Again, thank you so much for walking me through this. You have been a GREAT help!

[Paolo Ciccone]

You're very welcome Jordan.
The need to render or not depends on the codec used not on QT. For example, if your source clip is QT HDV720p and your compressor is Uncompressed you will need to render because you need to convert from one format to the other. If your source and rendered format are the same *and your computer can play the clip back in real time* then you will not see the red bar. If Premiere cannot play the clip without dropped frames, even without transcoding, you will see the red line.
Transitions and effects will need to be rendered most of the times, it's just necessary given that they perform complex transformations on the images. No way around it except for the simplest ones and the ones that are supported by your GPU.

Good luck.

[Jordan Orberg]

Paolo, Thank you very much for all of your advice. I will attempt to find a match as far as capturing and compressor settings. Do you have any suggestions as far as a good match goes? Which ones do you recommend or use yourself? (If you don't mind me asking)

Thank you again for all of your help. It is nice to come to a forum and ask questions without worrying about getting bashed!